For all the success Ben Johnson had as the Detroit Lions' offensive coordinator, which led to him becoming the Chicago Bears' head coach, he never had a wide receiver quite like Rome Odunze. Which is to say, a big "X" receiver who can be given contested catch chances and win them frequently.
During his final college season at Washington, Odunze had an FBS-high 24 contested catches and a 75 percent contested catch rate. He carried that into his rookie season, with a 72.2 percent success rate on on contested catch opportunities (13-for-18, according to Pro Football Focus).
Last year, as he played through a lingering foot injury that eventually costed him five games, Odunze's contested catch proficiency evaporated. According to PFF, he pulled down just seven of 20 contested catch opportunities.
Five of those contested catches (on 12 opportunities) came from Week 1-8. After that point, in line with his appearance on the injury report with the foot issue, Odunze's performance notably dropped off in every capacity.
After the Week 11 game against the Minnesota Vikings last season, here's what Johnson said about those proverbial "50-50" balls as a component of the Bears' passing game.
"Yeah, I’m not a big guy on 50-50 balls to be honest with you," Johnson said. "You can look at my track record of calling games and we like to get guys open a little bit more than just throw it up for grabs, and so that’s not really what we want to be about necessarily."
Of course, Odunze's 20 contested catch opportunities last season came in just 12 games, and he was physically compromised for some of them. So Johnson did appear to be shifting that 50-50 ball mindset some, even if "throwing it up for grabs" is only totally appropriate for one or two Bears' pass catchers.
Bears' plan with Rome Odunze can finally come to full fruition this season
Speaking to the media the day after the Bears' preseason opener, offensive coordinator Press Taylor was asked for his assessment of how Odunze is doing in training camp.
After praising Odunze's speed, explosion and focus on the details as a route runner, Taylor got to what differentiates the No. 9 overall pick in the 2024 draft from most any other Bears' pass catcher.
"You see the contested catch ability that he has," Taylor said. "I think we've increased giving him those opportunities as well. We've made it a point of emphasis to try to push the ball down the field on some contested go balls because that's obviously a strength of his. That's something we didn't feature much as a coaching staff last year. To add to our offense and what we can do and experiment with certain things, we've given him some of those opportunities. He's made his fair share of plays on those, so that's encouraging.”
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Taylor acknowledged wanting to lean into Odunze's strength on contested catches and integrate it into the offense in greater fashion this year. If not for his foot issue, it may have happened before last season was over, but it can come to full bloom this season and add another highly threatening element to the Bears' offense.
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